The Bad Wolf And You
by Bad Werewolf
Summary: Sequel to Arithmancy and The Year That Never Was. Set during The Stolen Earth and Journey's End. Rated T for mild language and because Captain Jack Harkness is still around here somewhere.
1. Unspeakable

**Disclaimer: **If I owned Doctor Who, Gallifrey wouldn't stay blown up. If I owned Harry Potter, I'd be rich. I am poor, and there is no Gallifrey, therefore logic dictates that I own none of this. One word here was borrowed from Stargate SG1, and is also not mine. Anyone who does work for the BBC, if you read this, please interpret it as a job application for writing for Doctor Who.

**Summary: **Sequel to Arithmancy and The Year That Never Was. Set during The Stolen Earth and Journey's End. Rated T for mild language and because Captain Jack Harkness is still around here somewhere.

x x x

**28th June, 2008: The Bad Wolf And You**

x x x

**Chapter 1: Unspeakable**

x x x

"You need to see this!" one of the other Unspeakables shouted, rushing into the Time Room to find Draco Malfoy sitting on the floor examining a stone tablet.

It was department policy that they not refer to each other by name. One of the Muggle-borns had made a joke about it, making reference to 'Men In Black', whatever that was. In spite of this rule, everyone knew who Draco Malfoy was, though very few of them understood his peculiar interest in the Time Room and the Death Room. He generally ignored his co-workers, but this one had just made himself impossible to ignore.

"See what?" Draco asked, coldly glaring up from his translation work. The tablet was written in Latin. He had yet to figure out why it was time-related, but he knew it was. Somewhere in the back of his mind he could sense a trace of something around it that made it very significant, he just had yet to find any actual evidence to prove this hunch.

"Something's happened in the space room."

Draco shook his head with a scowl, "Not my department, not my problem." he looked back at the Latin inscription, only to find that the text had changed. What had only a moment ago been intricate incantations now read quite differently.

The header of the script now said 'Lupa malla sum.' and 'Lupus malus' was repeated throughout the remainder of the space on the stone tablet. Like most home-schooled wizards and witches, Draco was fairly fluent in Latin... you need to be to know what half the spells are probably intended to do without looking them up in a textbook. It had been very shortly after Voldemort's demise that Draco had had _that_ argument with Harry Potter over the Sectumsempra incident.

"Now where have I heard that one before?" he asked with a frown. He knew the answer, but didn't have to like it. He had heard that this had cropped up around the Doctor right before the Dalek attack due some time this summer. But what he did not understand was why the Bad Wolf would send him a message. He was not in any position to help, was he? He really hoped he wasn't expected to do anything heroically stupid, that was for Gryffindors, not for him. Last year, he had been secure in the knowledge that the whole year would never happen anyway so he could afford a few stupid risks, but this would be very different.

"Are you not even going to try to help us figure this out? It's like the whole solar system completely changed in there!"

Draco rolled his eyes, "Alright, I've gone through the practice run, and it can't kill me just to look at it. Not like second year." he was remarkably calm about the whole thing considering how bad he knew this one was going to get. He already knew what was about to happen, had been told over ten years ago, and he had just been given an early warning by someone he had never even met.

"Practice run?"

"You do not want to know." Draco said, in a tone which somehow managed to be both dismissive and emphatic at the same time. He followed his co-worker into the Space Room of the Department of Mysteries.

True enough, the entire solar system had changed. Earth was sitting in the middle of the room where it belonged, but the other planets, even the Sun, had gone. Instead there were twenty-six completely unfamiliar planets circling above and around the Earth, much closer than anything that big really should be to a life-bearing planet if you actually think about it. And there was something Draco couldn't see clearly from here in the centre of the formation. He would bet his inheritance it was the Space Room's projection of the Dalek 'crucible', or so he'd been told it was called.

Draco sat down on the edge of the floor in the doorway, feet dangling over the illusion of an abyss that this room projected. He could see the subtle balance of the planets, even though he'd never been in this room before. It just looked like they were _meant_ to do what they were doing, even if he hadn't already known it was on purpose. It scared him a little when he noticed these things that he knew no one else did, and he usually tried to pretend he didn't see them. But even though he could see this, he still wasn't sure what he was supposed to do now. How was he supposed to help here?

Then something else caught his eye. Circling around the Earth's image towards them was a large and disturbingly familiar object. The Grecian pillar he had seen last year.

A TARDIS.

A flicker of a memory from ten years ago caused him to laugh. "Oh, he's going to be pissed when he finds out where she was." he muttered. The other unspeakable stared at him, completely lost, and letting it show on his face.

"What's going on, and why are you being so calm about it? The spells in this room are infallible, we've tried manipulating the illusions before now, and-"

"Stop telling me what I already know, and try to figure out what that is." Draco ordered, pointing to the illusion of the crucible. Sure, he already knew what that was, but he needed to get rid of this other person. The last thing he needed was for people who didn't know anything about what was about to happen to get involved.

"Looks a bit like the Death Star." the other Unspeakable muttered, moving in the direction of the illusion of the crucible. And that, right there, proved that he's Muggle-born.

Draco, meanwhile, tentatively pushed away from the doorway towards the TARDIS. He had never actually stepped into the Space Room before and was very uncomfortable with the sudden apparent lack of gravity. As he approached it, a door opened in the TARDIS' side. "Oh, you trust me, do you?" he asked, stepping into the TARDIS, relieved to have something solid under his feet again.

The interior was all black and silver, organic shapes like the Doctor's TARDIS, but monochrome coloring, cleaner and darker at the same time. He liked it better than the golden colors of the Doctor's TARDIS, but that was more a matter of biased against Gryffindor than anything else.

He heard a gentle whirring as the engines ignited, causing the lights around the walls and inside the central column to glow softly into life.

A screen appeared out of one terminal, containing a message, _'Greetings, human.'_

"How long have you been here?" Draco asked in awe.

The screen display informed him, _'Three hundred and sixteen years, four months, seven days, forty-two minutes and twelve seconds.'_

The seconds ticked over on the display as Draco read it, stunned. Since about the time of the formation of the Minstry of Magic, then. Probably. "Must be lonely." he murmured, not intending to be heard, but the answer appeared on the screen nonetheless.

_'Very.'_

"How did you get here?"

_'The Time Lords sent me to locate my Master. I followed the incorrect signature and found myself on Earth. Alone.'_

"Well you're not alone now... and you'll find him again, I know." Draco said, in what he hoped was a comforting tone.

_'Yes, I have seen it in your mind.'_

Draco glanced at the door, and as if in response it closed, not suddenly, but quite firmly, "Do you know why I'm here?" Draco asked, warily.

_'You already know.'_

"What do I have to do?"

_'Time will not rewind, this time. Lives can be saved with knowledge of events to come.'_

"They're going to attack our world as well as the Muggles, aren't they?"

_'Estimated time to invasion, twenty-six minutes.'_

"Bugger." Draco muttered, but before he could even start wallowing in self-pitying despair, the screen lit up with a new message.

_'Initiating most logical flightpath.'_ The TARDIS was dematerialising to take him somewhere. He did not know where. Or even when.

x x x

When they arrived the screen then informed him, _'Moment of Earth transportation, plus one second. Time to invasion fifty-three minutes ten seconds.'_ and the seconds began to tick. She had brought him back to the earliest moment possible, he guessed. But where?

He opened the door to find himself in the main foyer of the Ministry of Magic. A woman ran into the building panicking, "They sky just went out! The stars are gone!"

"You're not a Centaur, why is this scaring you?" someone snarked at her.

Draco wordlessly cast a silencing spell at this rude person, and then turned his attention back to the frightened woman, "Tell me." he said calmly, acting as if this pillar behind him had always been here.

"There's other worlds in the sky!" the panicked woman cried. She was Muggleborn, he'd seen her around the Ministry before, she worked in the Minister's department, but he could not remember her name.

"Calm down, other planets in the sky is nothing to worry about. It's easy to fix, I promise. What you need to do now is go home and ensure that your family stays indoors and your dissillusionment wards are strong."

"What? Why?"

"I'm an Unspeakable, it's against my job description to say why."

Everyone was watching him now, but the woman gave him a fearful look, "Something bad is about to happen, isn't it?"

"Something very bad, but if you stay inside and strengthen your dissillusionment charms you will be safe. Now go." he raised his voice, "All of you. Staring at me like I'm some sideshow freak, instead of actually giving you important advice. Go!" _Now I know how the Doctor feels half the time,_ Draco thought, with some irony.

"What is going on here?" that was the Minister of Magic himself, Kingsley Shacklebolt.

He hated to repeat himself, but his timing last time meant that no one would remember what he had said then. He had planned it that way. Draco turned to face the Minister and said perfectly calmly, "The shit is about to hit the fan, sir."

"How do you know this?"

"How did I know about those little incidents last Christmas and the year before?" Draco asked smiling innocently. In truth he was getting very nervous, but he was good at projecting false emotion or lack thereof.

"And where did this come from?" the Minister added, indicating the TARDIS that looked like a stone pillar in the middle of the atrium.

"Need to know information. Sorry sir, but you don't."

Kingsley glared at Draco for a moment, but sighed, "What is it this time? Another alien invasion?"

"Pretty much. Emergency Plan A should work."

Kingsley shook his head and turned to leave. "Do it." he ordered.

"We've got about fifty minutes, sir." Draco noted to the Minister's retreating back. He saw a curt nod, but the Minister did not turn back.

x x x

"Exterminate! Exterminate!"

The rather comically shaped aliens swept down in a very un-comical battle formation over Diagon Alley. The Aurors were still evacuating witches and wizards that were in the streets to the safe-houses Emergency Plan A dictated. The plan did say that if people were already in their homes with good wards up they would be safe, this information was sent through Floo alerts telling people to stay in their homes. Still, people who weren't in their homes were a lot closer to the safe-houses in Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. Word had also been sent to other Magical world leaders, unfortunately for them they laughed at the warning until they saw the ships. Until they heard the aliens' communication.

Wards were in place over the street, but the aliens swooped through them like they were nothing. The wards on the safe-houses were much stronger and seemed to deter the attackers from thinking there was anything there at all.

Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley were leading the Auror effort.

"How did we get warned about this, anyway?" Ron asked, casting yet another shielding spell to block the most recent barrage of laser beams from their attackers.

"Malfoy, apparently." Harry responded, while guiding people into the underground bunker and doing his own share of shielding charms at the same time, "He's been pretty accurate since he started working in the Time Room. It's creepy, really."

"I just wanna know what that lot do in there all the time." Ron grumbled.

"Shut up, Weasley." Malfoy's voice came from the roof of the one-story building they were herding evacuees into.

"Exterminate!" a blast shot straight at Malfoy, who shielded himself and shot a curse right back at the alien. Green light but they didn't hear the words. Whatever it was, it had no effect.

"I really hate these things." Malfoy said, hopping down from the roof. He used a minor levitation charm to slow his fall, before joining them in fleeing to safety, now that everyone else was inside, "That was a killing curse and not even a scratch. It's unfair!"

Once inside and shielded well by the magical protection of their emergency hideout, Ron decided it was safe to fully concentrate on attempting to impersonate a Basilisk while glaring at Malfoy.

Draco just grinned, "Christmas on the roof." he said calmly, and Ron backed down, cringing at the memory.

"Why are you so calm about this?" Harry asked.

"Bad influence." he said, wandering over to the TARDIS he had been adopted by. Harry and Ron followed, more out of a terminal case of curiosity than any desire to be in Draco Malfoy's presence. Hermione, who was in the crowd, palmed her two children off on Ginny Potter and Molly Weasley, before following the three of them.

"What were those things?" she demanded, not showing any surprise at the TARDIS, as though she'd seen one before.

"Daleks." Draco answered, "They make Voldemort's xenophobic genocidal tendancies look positively cute and cuddly by comparison, from what I've heard."

"Lovely. Why are they here?" Hermione persisted.

"To destroy the universe." Draco answered, "Apparently they need the Earth to do that. I don't know the details, I didn't bother listening that closely."

"So he did tell you the future." she said, almost to herself.

"Technically, he told me what, to him, was the past. Something he probably never anticipated our lot really getting involved in."

"What about my parents. They're still out there somewhere." Hermione demanded, fear finally showing in her previously authoritative tone.

"Where do they live?" Draco asked.

"Blaidd Ddrwg road, just outside Cardiff." Hermione answered.

Draco slammed his forehead violently into the console, "You didn't need to translate that!" he snapped at the TARDIS.

Hermione blinked, "What the-?"

"Fine, we'll go check on your parents." Draco said with the most exasperated sigh he was capable of. The TARDIS was laughing at him as it began dematerialising, he was sure of it. The fact it made no actual sound did not deter him from this certainty.

x x x

When they arrived, they stepped out of the TARDIS to discover it now looked like a perfectly ordinary blue plastic dumpster. "Hate the color scheme." Draco informed it as the door swung shut, he was sure it was still laughing at him.

Hermione was giggling at this, but Ron and Harry were confused, "I don't get it." Harry pointed out the obvious.

"You need to meet the Doctor sometime." Hermione informed them.

"So you did meet him, then." Draco said, "I wondered."

"Yeah, after I finished my last year in Hogwarts he took me on a tour of some very interesting historical locations. Two thirds of which wanted to kill him, but that's besides the point."

Draco laughed, "I guess I was lucky, no one tried to kill him when he took me to visit World War Two."

Hermione would have commented on this remark, she had the perfect comeback involving his hair color and everything, but she did not get the time to speak before a familiar voice echoed through the street, "Exterminate! Exterminate!"

They ducked behind the TARDIS as it impersonated a dumpster, and the Dalek trundled past them oblivious. "Gotta learn how to kill those things." Draco whispered, "Potter, maybe you could try Sectumsempra."

"Shut up, Malfoy." Harry muttered.

Draco grinned evilly. It had been a joke and he was surprised to find that he was glad his former nemesis hadn't stormed out into the middle of the road and actually tried anything that stupid. They quickly made their way past the infuriating street sign and down to where Hermione's parents lived without any further incident and with Hermione providing the perfectly ordinary Muggle-style key they got inside safely.

"Hermione! What are you doing here? You've heard what's going on haven't you?" a man, whom Draco vaguely recognised from the resemblance must be Hermione's father, asked quickly. The woman hovering in a doorway behind him must, therefore, logically be Hermione's mother.

"Yes, that's why we're here, we came to make sure you were ok." Hermione said, obviously very relieved to see them both alive and well.

Meanwhile, Draco was peering out the window warily, "Something else is about to happen." he said flatly, "He can't have _not_ told you about the Bad Wolf, can he?"

"Actually, he never mentioned anything of the sort." Hermione retorted.

"Hmph." Draco continued to watch, "Probably because you'd figure it out too soon. He wouldn't shut up about her for five minutes when I was with him."

Hermione blinked, "You mean the street name? What has that to do with it?"

"Nevermind, I'm sure it'll make sense eventually. Right now even I don't get it." Malfoy grumbled, watching through the window as a lone human figure ran down the street, towards the offensive signpost.

x x x

**_Translations for those of you who didn't already know:_**  
_Lupa Malla Sum_ = I am the Bad Wolf (feminine)  
_Lupus Malus_ = Bad Wolf (non-gender-specific)  
_Sectumsempra_ = taken straight from _Half-Blood Prince_, roughly translates around Latin as 'to cut forever' (she loves to mutilate the Latin she uses, doesn't she)  
_Blaidd Ddrwg_ = according to a helpful reviewer (Spoilers - thanks again!) who proved that the translator I used was wrong (I suspected something fishy in the first place).

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	2. Hallowed

x x x

**Chapter 2: Hallowed**

x x x

The streetlights were out in this area, casting deep shadows everywhere. The woman ran as fast as she could, hoping to find somewhere to hide. Considering the fact she wore six-inch spiked heels, she was doing incredibly well on the running away front. It wasn't really her fault she'd been out shopping when it happened. It was the mall's fault for having that big promotional sale, how could she possibly have resisted?

She had been on her way home, with five full shopping bags precariously balanced when the attack began, but she had been wise enough to give the shopping bags up as a casualty of war and start running full pelt away from the menacing machines. Somehow they were far more frightening than anything else she had seen before, and yet at the same time they distinctly resembled giant pepper pots armed with plungers and whisks.

Miraculously managing not to break a heel, she skidded on the pavement and turned a sharp corner out into a well-lit street, not slowing down for a second.

"Exterminate! Exterminate!"

"Oh damn." she muttered, under her breath, as she came to a dead-stop facing a pair of Daleks. She stood frozen in fear for a second, before muttering an incoherent apology for being in their way and stumbling backwards, away from the monsters.

She bumped into a lamppost, or something of the sort, and cringed. This was it, she was going to die.

_Oh no you don't._

Suddenly a knowledge was there in the back of her mind, and she instinctively followed the instructions. She carefully and deliberately turned the ring she wore over three times, by twisting it around her finger.

The cracked stone glowed bright red for a second, and the Daleks stopped advancing on her.

"It's been said to me often enough before, but why don't you lot just stay dead, hmm?" a heartbreakingly familiar voice asked from beside, and just behind her.

Suddenly the two Daleks found themselves being blasted apart up by a laser beam, and a beautiful sadistic laughter filled the air.

She turned to try to hug him, but her arms passed right through him.

"Tut tut. I'd have thought you would have figured that trinket out, if you managed to use it?" he said, raising an eyebrow in amusement.

Before she had a chance to explain that it really hadn't been her own thought to use the ring, a door opened across the street, and a young man ran out towards them. He skidded to a halt, shooting a cold look at the street sign over the woman's head, before saying to both of them, "Long time no see." in a slightly bemused voice.

"Damien?" the woman asked.

"You're half-right, Lucy. That never was my real name." he glanced at the incorporeal man, "You'd understand all about that, though, wouldn't you?"

Another woman, much younger than Lucy, stepped out of the same door, but she hung back warily, "You're not a ghost... but you're not solid either?"

He nodded. Unlike ghosts, his image was in full color and not in the slightest bit translucent.

"But the laser-?" she asked.

"Light. Visible, not tangible. Sonic would have worked too." he added with a slightly manic grin. Although somewhere behind his amusement were signs of pain.

Hermione returned the grin in equal measure, only where he barely showed pain she showed mild fear. Something about him scared her, as well it should, really. "Enemy of my enemy." it was a statement, rather than a question.

He nodded again, "A pleasure to meet you, Miss-?"

"Weasley. _Mrs _Hermione Weasley."

With a flourished bow the apparition introduced himself, "I am the Master."

x x x

"So all that time, you were spying on me?" the Master's image asked. Draco nodded. They were holed up in the Grangers' house, discussing their current situation. "You did an excellent job of it, I'm impressed."

"Occulmency. I had lots of practice with it." Draco said, by way of an explanation. He had kept Voldemort out of his head easily enough, after some tuition from his aunt, but he'd found that resisting the Master's mind had been a much more difficult task, requiring misdirection and subtle deceptions, rather than simple solid walls around his thoughts.

"How are you here?" Hermione asked, "I thought- I mean, Malfoy told us what happened, and- well, you died."

"He knows." Draco said, nodding in the direction of Harry Potter, who had been sitting in brooding silence during the conversation. The expression of concentration on Harry's face had been the giveaway that he knew something.

"The ring." Harry said, scowling in Lucy's direction, "Where did you get it?"

"I acquired it a couple of years ago." the Master answered, "It was in an ordinary pawn shop, but I could tell there was something unique about it."

"I threw it into the Forbidden Forest ten years ago." Harry said quietly, "No one was meant to find it."

"But you're not dead." Draco said, staring at the Master calmly, "According to the reports on Voldemort's destruction, that ring is only supposed to be able to restore an illusory echo of a _dead_ being."

"This incarnation is dead." he answered, "Harold Saxon is dead." a faint smirk appeared on his face, "I have no idea what my latest body is up to, a bit surprised I didn't stay dead, but- it wasn't the Doctor, was it?" a slight hint of fear was in that question, easily missed if you weren't looking for it.

"No." Draco said, in a tone that refused to elaborate.

"Good." and suddenly he was too cheerful again, especially for what he said next, "Either way, one thing I do know is that it's causing me some pain to be here in this form."

"Why do you stay, then?" Ron asked.

"Because only Lucy can dismiss me."

Lucy Saxon looked down at the ring she wore with a cautious frown. Everyone was looking at her now, "But we can't fight these things alone. And he's not here, Master."

"Who's not here?" Ron demanded.

The Master's illusion stared at Lucy for several moments, before answering the question, "The Doctor."

"He must be coming to help us, though." Hermione protested, "I mean a big thing like the Earth being moved to another system won't go unnoticed."

"But what if this Doctor guy can't find it now it's been moved?" Ron asked. For having the lowest tested IQ in the room, he'd made the most intelligent observation. Not even Time Lords could see everything, maybe the Doctor really wouldn't be able to find them in time.

x x x

After Ron's suggestion that the Doctor might not be able to find them, the Master had grudgingly agreed to help them so long as, once he did, Lucy would release him from the ring. If he really was in pain, it was a good thing to blackmail or bribe him with, depending on which way you looked at it. Her fear seemed to encourage him to want to act, as well. As if he actually cared for her, on some level.

So it was that they had made their way outside to the blue dumpster. As soon as they all entered the TARDIS and the door closed behind them, the illusion of the Master approached the central console with great reverence, and tried to touch the controls. When his hand passed through them he seemed visibly upset for a moment. But he quickly regained his composure and turned to stare at Draco, "How did you find her?"

"About an hour and a half ago. You could say I was sent to her by someone a bit more omniscient than you."

The Master sneered at the suggestion that there was someone out there who knew more than a Time Lord, but didn't retort, because he really hadn't known where his TARDIS had gone, but obviously whoever helped Draco had known. That made Draco's statement true enough not to be worth arguing with.

"I suppose we ought to signal the Doctor's TARDIS. Call for help. He always did scare the Daleks more than me, for some reason." the Master said, reluctantly, examining the console. "Humanity, I can terrify in a heartbeat or two, but Daleks all but ignore me. They even had the nerve to execute me once." He showed irritation when he saw that the readouts were displayed in English, and he looked at Draco suspiciously, "She has been communicating with you?"

"How else do you think I got her here?" Draco asked, trying his best to look innocent but failing miserably. The Master looked as offended as if he thought his wife had been cheating on him with this mere human. Random humans were _not_ supposed to be able to access any TARDIS so easily.

The Master automatically made to turn a couple of the controls, but when his hands passed right through them he swore. Draco was sure he'd heard the word somewhere before, probably on the Valiant, but it was not English, that was for sure. After glaring at Draco for several seconds, the Master beckoned him angrily, "Get over here and turn this dial two points counter-clockwise, shol'va."

"What did you call me?" Draco asked, his tone ironic and a bit too cheerful, as if even though he really did not understand the word he considered whatever insult it could have been to be a compliment or a joke.

"It means traitor." the Master growled, continuing to point to the dial in question. Draco approached and casually turned the dial as instructed. "Now press that button."

Draco complied, while asking in far too innocent a tone, "How can I betray someone to whom I was never loyal to begin with?"

The Master did not answer, but simply continued to give instructions, and soon the screen displayed information. It didn't make much sense to any of the humans in the room, but the Master quickly interpreted it, "Someone's already trying to call him." he said bluntly, "Torchwood, probably." he reached for another button, and when he failed to be able to touch it, Draco pressed it without waiting to be told. The display changed and the Master spoke again, "Their signal is getting through, but it's broken. Something is hiding us from him."

Three buttons in sequence and another dial. Draco followed the Master's hand-movements carefully, doing everything only about half a second behind.

"I knew I kept you around for a reason, you learn fast." the Master muttered, torn between displeasure at the fact he needed this human's help and approval of said human's ability to actually be useful.

It only took a few seconds for the Master to figure out what the problem was.

"That's clever." he declared. Hermione grinned, causing him to scowl, "Oh shut up." he snapped at her for even thinking that his exclamation had been even the slightest bit Doctorish. Just because that was something the Doctor did say rather often. But this really was clever, though, and even the Master had to admit it.

"What's clever?" Ron demanded to know.

"We're out of phase with the rest of time by about point-nine-nine-seven of a second. They could have picked a better number." the Master answered. This did not enlighten Ron. "It means anyone in the normal time-stream can't see us, and it would be a right pain trying to get to us, too. You need to know where to look to find it."

"So tell him where to look." Ron said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Really, it kind of was.

"Not so easy." Draco interrupted, before the Master could speak, "I encountered the Doctor after this event in his time-line. He never mentioned you." he was looking right at the Master, "Or any of us trying to contact him."

"You must not be seen." Hermione whispered, echoing Dumbledore's instructions on messing with your own past.

The Master rolled his eyes, "What, I get forced to help him save his pathetic pet planet and I don't even get to rub it in his face that he needed me?" then he thought about it and after a few seconds he added, "You know what, better he doesn't know, seeing as I was blackmailed so beautifully, he'd end up being the one gloating, wouldn't he?"

"Yep." Draco answered with a grin.

With a defeated sigh the Master started moving his hands over the controls again. Draco copied him to actually activate said controls. Soon they had done something important, though only the Master knew what. "I added to Torchwood's signal. A repeating pulse distortion at point-nine-nine-seven of a second, it's about as blatant as I can reasonably get without actually sending the message myself."

"Let me guess, it repeats every four beats?" Draco asked, trying not to laugh. The Master pretended to ignore this, making it obvious that the answer was 'yes'.

"How will he notice that?" Hermione asked.

The Master shrugged, "I'd notice it."

"That's good enough for me." Draco said actually laughing now, "Those two are equally insane geniuses."

No sooner had Draco said that than a message flashed up on the screen telling them in plain English that another TARDIS had entered their displaced little pocket of space. "See, I told you that would work." the Master said smugly.

"So what now?" Harry asked. It was obvious that he was just itching to get out there and fight the Daleks.

"Absolutely nothing." the Master answered a bit too brightly, but the illusion of cheerfulness was shattered as he seemed to flinch in pain, "Just. Stop. Thinking. Please, Lucy."

"What?" she asked, startled.

"Your thoughts are controlling the ring." he growled, still obviously in pain, "You're thinking about something that happened last year. Stop it now."

She blushed a little, and looked down, as if trying to concentrate on anything else.

"Tell a human to stop thinking about something, you're guaranteeing they'll keep thinking about it." Draco noted, amused.

The Master snarled, and loomed over Lucy, as if he wanted to slap her. She flinched away, and whimpered an apology, even though they all knew he was incorporeal, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it, Master, I'm sorry."

Draco stepped in between the Master and Lucy, holding his hands up in a placating way. He wasn't exactly unafraid, but he was pretty certain that at least he wasn't going to receive the threatened slap aimed at Lucy, seeing as the Master had no physical presence. That and he's seen the Master threaten Lucy to no end on the Valiant, but never once had those threats been serious, never once had he harmed her.

"We have more important things to think about, there must be something else we can do here. Arguing isn't helping anyone." Draco said, in as diplomatic a tone as he could manage.

The Master stared at Draco coldly for a moment, "There was always something about you... as if I could trust you, like I knew you before I met you." he said quietly.

Draco smirked, "That's because you did. But let's not go into that level of- as the Muggles like to call it- technobabble right now, please?"

A sharp bark-like laugh was the Master's only answer to that, "What exactly do you suggest we do now? If the Doctor cannot defeat the Daleks, then precident has been truly misleading."

"Never hurts to have a plan B. And C, D, E and F, too, for that matter." Draco said smugly.

"What was your plan B the night Dumbledore died?" Harry snapped. He'd never gotten over that one, had he?

"Actually, I ended up using plan D." Draco muttered, "Plan A, _'buy time'_. Plan B, _'get someone else to do it'_. Plan C, _'run away'_. Plan D... well, that was the Doctor's fault." He then glanced at the Master, "Last year I got through it all on plan A, though. That was a first for me. Then again, plan B last year had been _'die and wait for the Doctor to undo the year, which I knew all along would happen'_."

"Smug dumb ape." the Master grumbled, glaring at an innocent button on the control panel as if Draco's successful deception was somehow its fault.

But before anything else could be said or done, the Master looked up skyward, startled by something. And then he swore, a continuous string of multilingual curses, ranging through Gallifreyan, English, French, Greek, Latin, and a few others no one else recognised, all referencing things Captain Jack would probably be interested in. Finally, he turned to the controls without explanation, and began trying to manipulate them. Draco did not question him, instead following his hands to activate the controls for him.

"What happened?" Hermione asked, a bit frightened by the outburst.

"Something very bad." Draco answered. The Master was too focused to respond himself.

"How do you know?" Ron demanded.

"I heard about it in the past tense." Draco said. The Master spared him a sharp look, but did not stop what he was doing. "What exactly are you doing, then?" he asked the Master, who didn't deign to answer the question.

Suddenly the TARDIS shuddered, as it moved location. The Master turned sharply and left, being incorporeal he didn't even need to open the door. Draco followed unquestioningly. The others exchanged worried glances then followed as well.

x x x


	3. Centrifuge

x x x

**Chapter 3: Centrifuge**

x x x

For a few seconds, they saw the Master standing next to the familiar blue phone-box of the Doctor's TARDIS, an expression of fear and- was that concern?- on his face as he reached for the door but, before he could try anything stupid and time-line altering, a group of Daleks appeared from around the corner. Immediately, without warning, the unfortunate Daleks were blasted by laser bolts.

The Master was either furious, distraught, or otherwise unhinged beyond his usual mental state. He snarled as more of the metallic fiends arrived on the scene, converging on their main target of the Doctor's TARDIS, and he continued to fire on them with all the skill and precision of a fully trained sniper, one shot per Dalek, no survivors. But more just kept coming.

Hermione quickly set up a shielding charm around the group, and hissed, "What happened to not affecting the timeline, hmm?"

"Oh, shut up, human." the Master snarled, not interrupting his assault on the army of Daleks. It seemed like every Dalek on Earth had decided to start swarming down on their location, probably because they'd detected the Doctor's presence.

"What's going on?" Lucy asked, terrified, hiding behind the three Gryffindors. Draco was next to the Master, firing impediment jinxes, which at least slowed the Daleks a bit, even if he couldn't kill them like the laser beams could. He did try Sectumsempra, Incendio and a few other damaging spells, but they all had no effect.

"The Doctor's been hurt." Draco answered.

"Sometimes I wonder how you know these things." the Master grumbled, "You knew exactly where to be and when all last year."

"Before then, actually. I knew well enough in advance to apply for that job BEFORE you showed up on Earth."

"Smug dumb ape." the Master repeated. Then he seemed to freeze for a second. Luckily the Daleks' numbers had been thinned enough for this to not be a fatal mistake. In fact, they'd stopped advancing completely.

"Took him long enough." the Master muttered.

"Funny how you act like you're trying to kill him so often, but as soon as he's in danger you want to save him." Draco noted, amused.

"Bite me." the Master snarked.

"Say that to Greyback." Draco retorted.

Unfortunately for this perfect comeback, the Master did not know who or what Fenrir Greyback was, and stared blankly for half a second to show it.

"We need to leave." Draco said, breaking the ominious silence before it could begin.

"Why?" Hermione asked.

"More of them are coming." Draco said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, "And we do actually need to let him get captured if he's going to save the universe."

"I always hated that plan. It's one of his favourite, isn't it?" the Master asked, smirking sardonically, "Get caught by the enemy, then somehow miraculously escape and win."

"Worked well for me, too." Harry put in brightly.

The Master shook his head and muttered, "Really annoying."

"I bet it was." Draco said, returning to their TARDIS, which had managed to look like a lamp post, and yet still it was possible to step inside it. The door itself was bigger than the surface it was in without appearing to be so.

The others followed, just as bewildered by the dimensional distortion as he was. And they're wizards, they're not supposed to be surprised by the illogical and the very improbable.

x x x

They had watched on the view-screen as the Daleks showed up and took away the very conspicuous blue phone-box that was the Doctor's TARDIS. Their own TARDIS remained happily unremarkable and was completely ignored by the Daleks. "Gotta love chameleon circuits that actually work." the Master muttered, amused by this small detail. No one else understood what he meant.

Several minutes passed, "Are you sure there's nothing else we can do?" Harry demanded for the dozenth time.

"Positive." Draco said, frowning at thin air as he considered it, "There are plenty of other people trying to stop the Daleks, we'd just get in the way. There's two Doctors, five former companions of the Doctor, two more humans from another dimension, a mechanical dog, two supercomputers, a rift in space and time, about two dozen nuclear warheads, a nova diamond and a pterodactyl all trying to mess with the Daleks. Really, they'll be fine without our interference right now."

"What's a nova diamond?" the Master asked.

"It's our term for what I think the Doctor called a warpstar."

"They're one of the five things that could theoretically destroy a horcrux, but they'd probably take the planet with them. No one's been dumb enough to set one off before." Hermione put in, helpfully.

"Wonderful, you humans are better armed than I thought. You could have planted one of those on the Valiant and-"

"And killed the Doctor? I'm not that dumb an ape, thank you very much." Draco interrupted.

The Master actually laughed at this.

x x x

It had been about five minutes since the Doctor's TARDIS had been captured when the Master looked up at the ceiling as if looking at something he saw beyond it, "I had wondered when you said two. There's three. You know that, right?"

"Technicalities." Draco muttered.

"Huh?" Ron asked, looking up from where he'd been playing exploding snap with Harry to pass the time. Much to the Master's displeasure, there were now marks from explosions all over his nice shiny TARDIS' floor.

"Do you want him to go into a detailed explanation that only the best Muggle scientists could have a hope of following, or do you just want to accept the fact the Doctor's about to blow up the Dalek Crucible and save all twenty-seven planets that they stole?" Draco asked, amused at Ron's completely bewildered expression.

"Alright, sheesh." Ron grumbled, throwing another card down and causing yet another explosion which made the Master flinch.

x x x

About half an hour of silence passed, and then very suddenly an alarm went off. "That can't good." Draco muttered, picking himself up from where he'd been watching the card game and trying to figure out a way to play poker with an exploding deck and still be able to bluff.

"Depends on your perspective. If you're alive and on Earth, then it's probably very bad, yes." the Master said blithely.

"What's going on?" Hermione asked, fear creeping into her voice.

"The Doctor has done something very stupid, overlooked something so incredibly obvious." the Master answered, making no effort to stop whatever had gone wrong. "And considering there's three of him, and none of them thought of it, well that's three times as stupid, now isn't it?"

The ground started shaking now, and they were all sure that it was the Earth rather than the TARDIS.

"Earthquake." Ron declared succinctly.

"Three times in one day you say something intelligent. Are we sure you're really Ronald Weasley?" Draco snarked, receiving a glare from Ron for it.

"Why is there an earthquake?" Hermione asked.

"Not just one. The whole planet, actually." the Master said, his eyes glazed as if he was perceiving something no human could, but he was still making absolutely no effort to do anything.

"WHY?!" Hermione yelled, almost in the Master's ear, though he didn't even bat an eye at the volume of her voice.

He sighed dramatically, as if he was being severely put out by their constant blathering, and went to look at the readouts on the control panel, "The idiot is actually towing the planet. By a geographically fixed anomaly. And he's not made any effort to compensate for rotational stresses."

"Meaning? In plain dumb ape English, please?" Draco asked coldly.

"The Earth has stopped spinning, and it's causing every tectonic plate on the planet to go nuts. In about five minutes it'll get serious enough to do some real damage. Earthquakes like your puny human minds have never imagined before, tearing continents to pieces. Every active volcano going off at once. That sort of fun thing. And it will take at least twenty minutes through the vortex to get back to where we should be, so no hope of a pit-stop to fix things." considering the fact he was sitting on the Earth at the moment, the Master sounded supremely unconcerned. Then again, he was already dead. Sort of.

"We have to do something!" Harry shouted at the Master, who just yawned pointedly and looked at his fingernails in a bored fashion. Harry glared at him for a second, then got a vicious grin on his face for a second, and turned to Lucy. Suddenly he was smiling sweetly, saccharine that could rot your teeth sort of sweet, "What were you thinking about earlier? Something about last year?" he asked innocently.

The Master's head shot up and he was now glaring at Harry coldly. If looks could kill... too bad for him he wasn't a Basilisk.

Lucy blinked, and glanced at the Master fearfully. Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw the Master flinch.

"He can't hurt you, you don't have to share what you're thinking with the rest of us, just keep thinking about it." Harry coaxed, his tone encouraging as if he was back in the Room of Requirement teaching another student a particularly tricky spell.

After a second, the Master cringed, then clutched at his head in pain, "Stop it!" he yelled.

"Don't stop." Harry countered. There was authority in his voice now. Suddenly everyone here could see him for his true destiny, the power to lead that had given the wizarding world hope against Voldemort all those years ago. The grim avenging angel that does what must be done to save those he fights for. Not for the greater good, no, nothing so altruistic, but for those he loves and only for them.

"Deja-vu." Draco muttered, thinking of the Doctor's victory last year. Even though no actual magic was expended in the emotion Harry projected, they could all feel it in the air. Irresistible, beyond even the compulsion of the Imperius.

Lucy closed her eyes and concentrated on the memories that hurt her Master. Tears were running down her cheeks, she didn't want to hurt him, but he needed to see reason.

Soon the Master was screaming, as he fell to his knees, digging his nails into his scalp and trying to pull on his hair to try to make the pain go away. "Stop it, please!" he begged, "I'll do what you want, just please make her stop!"

On hearing his surrender, Lucy broke down into sobs, falling to her own knees and turning her thoughts to anything else. She couldn't comprehend how those memories had caused him pain, and that added to her distress.

The Master took a couple of seconds to recover, then with a vicious glare at Harry he picked himself up, brushing imaginary dust off his clothes, and turned to the console. Draco was already waiting to follow his commands to operate the TARDIS, his face a cold mask, as if even he was a bit frightened of Harry right now. Not that Draco Malfoy would ever admit to being afraid of Harry Potter. Nope, never.

Hermione knelt next to Lucy, trying to comfort her, "Shh, it's ok. You did the right thing, it'll be ok." she whispered, over and over in different permutations of the same sentiment.

Ron gaped at Harry, and then put in, "Nice one, mate." in spite of his shock that his best friend had chosen to cause pain to at least one innocent being (and one not-so-innocent) to achieve their goal.

"One pair of hands isn't quite enough." the Master declared, "I need one person over here." he moved to the far side of the control console. Ron was there before anyone else could volunteer, "Watch this, relative kinetic displacement readout. If it goes over nine hundred pull this lever down. Once we start, if it goes under seven hundred push it up. Can you do that?"

Ron nodded, and put his hand on the lever, ready. The Master gave him a suspicious look, as if he was absolutely certain no good could come of this human touching technology of any sort.

"And here." the Master moved round to another part of the controls. Since Hermione was still comforting Lucy, Harry approached the console warily. "These three buttons, inertial stabilizer controls. If the light next to one turns red, press it. Do not touch them otherwise."

Harry nodded to show he understood, unlike with Ron, the Master made no derogatory insinuation (body-language, or otherwise) towards Harry's ability to do what needed to be done. The Master then returned to the main section of the console he had been standing at before, where Draco was waiting.

The Master's hands moved over the TARDIS controls, Draco following him perfectly, as if he knew the sequences as well as the Master- a completely false impression, the Master could have been trying to activate the self-destruct sequence to kill them all and Draco would have been none the wiser.

Soon their TARDIS was moving, a shuddering that was quite unlike either the earthquake or traversing the vortex shook them, causing Ron and Harry to almost lose their footing. Luckily the three humans managed to hold onto the console, and Draco kept up with the Master who was smugly incorporeal and unaffected by the shaking.

Within a few moments, they stabilised again, and the Master spoke with a glare at anyone who dared meet his eyes, "We are now exerting a gravitational pull at the appropriate latitude, it's not ideal but it should hold the planet together for the duration of the journey."

"Thank you." Harry said a bit too politely.

The Master directed a Gallifreyan swear word at Harry and proceeded to sulk. Draco snickered when he heard it, having a good guess as to this one's meaning. The number of times he'd heard it directed at Captain Jack, he was fairly sure he'd figured it out as meaning 'being who goes back in time to meet their past self and have sex with themselves'. He could be wrong about that guess, though. But Jack's remarks about it led Draco to believe this was the correct translation of the word.

x x x


	4. Full Circle

Author's Note: Finally, the site's stopped giving me an error message every time I try to log on. Also, you already knew I'm rubbish at endings, so don't be too surprised here. I love you all, even if you don't review... though I'd be even happier if you did.

x x x

**Chapter 4: Full Circle**

x x x

From the Doctor's perspective, it had only been about five minutes since he left Earth. He hadn't set any coordinates, because he wanted to wallow in self-pity in the void for a few decades. This was not to be, however.

"You know that nice little cafe just around the corner from Torchwood 3? Five days after the Dalek thing, at four in the afternoon."

The handwriting on his psychic paper was unfamiliar. Not that he was especially surprised by this anymore. Not after River and the Library.

When he arrived at the location in question, he found a familiar young man sitting outside the cafe. He had seen this man on the Valiant during the year that the Master had ruled the Earth, and was fairly certain the name he had used then was not his true name. Of course, the Doctor really had no right to call anyone out on that count.

Five days after the Daleks. He must have deliberately waited till the first sunny day to call the Doctor. The atmospheric disturbances had caused it to rain solidly until this very morning.

The man, who had once called himself Damien, didn't looking at him as he approached, but there were three drinks already set out on the table in those take-away paper cups that hot drinks are often sold in these days. The Doctor took a seat, opposite Damien, and waited.

"You forgot something, you know." he informed the Doctor.

The Doctor blinked, "You didn't tell me to bring anything."

"No. How did he word it? _'the basics of centrifugal effects on seismically active planets'_."

The Doctor turned very pale very quickly. Only Time Lords referred to things so vast as being basic, especially in the offhand tone that implies they're an everyday thing. There was only one other Time Lord the Doctor could possibly think of that Damien might be quoting. Not only that, but the point was quite valid, he had overlooked that little detail.

Speechless, the Doctor didn't do speechless often, but here it was.

This elicited a bemused grin from the human, who picked up his own drink and said, "You gonna drink that, it'll go cold."

The Doctor realised that in front of him, in one of those paper cups, was some very nice-looking steaming hot tea. Reluctantly he picked up the cup and took a sip, wondering who the third drink was for. "How did you know-?"

"Well the earthquakes were a bit of a hint." the Doctor flinched when that was said, "Besides, we had help."

"We?"

"The golden trio didn't trust me to go off on my own, and then... well." he pulled an object out of his pocket, "Do you recognise this?" he set a golden ring with a cracked red stone on the table, so that the stone was facing the Doctor.

"So you are Draco Malfoy." he muttered. Between the reference to the 'golden trio', and the design of and damage to the ring, it was obvious he was at least a wizard. Not to mention the big clue that had been handed to him the previous year, though he'd not been a hundred percent certain until now.

A nod was the only answer to that rhetorical question.

"And who helped you, then?" the Doctor asked.

"Two people, but one I can't tell you about, because I'm pretty certain it will mess up the time-line if you know too soon." Draco began.

Just at that moment, another familiar face arrived. Captain Jack. So this was why he picked Cardiff, right next to Torchwood. Jack was invited.

"Hello, Captain." Draco said cheerfully.

"What're you doing here?" Jack demanded.

"Talking. Is there a law against that?" Draco asked innocently.

"No, but there's a law against the Imperius Curse." Jack pointed out.

"I'd like to see you try and enforce punishment for something that never happened, Captain." Draco said, smirking brightly.

Jack grumbled under his breath, but then smelled the coffee and sat down, taking the third cup without bothering to ask if it was for him or not.

Draco sat back smugly, for a moment, while Jack inhaled the caffeine. Then he spoke again, "Now that I could have poisoned both of you and politely chose not to-" the Doctor laughed, and Jack choked on the last drop of the coffee for a second, before glaring. "See the shiny thing in the middle of the table, Captain? We were taking about that."

"That's the Master's ring." Jack said flatly, "He tried to gouge my eye out with it one time."

"Lovely. I really needed to know that." Draco muttered.

"Well you have a worse imagination, buddy." Jack grumbled, "A rusty spork and a cheese grater, I believe was the most creative one."

Draco laughed, and the Doctor stared between the two, wondering exactly what they were talking about.

"This is the Hallowed Stone." Draco said rather bluntly. Jack blinked in surprise, then stared at the ring with renewed attention. "Now you get one guess who helped us to fix the little mistake the Doctor made five days ago."

Jack stared blankly, not having been there for the part of the conversation that explained what the Doctor had forgotten to do. The Doctor was also staring rather fixedly at the ring, but he was tense, as if waiting for very bad news.

Draco picked the ring up, and concentrating carefully he turned it over three times while the other two watched.

"You cannot be serious?!" came an angry yell next to Draco as the echo of the Master appeared.

"Sirius was my cousin." Draco retorted. Another standard response that the Master did not see the humour in. Everyone was glaring at him now. The Master then noticed the other two sitting there, and went for his weapon out of instinct.

"See, this is where I'm smarter than Lucy." Draco said, smiling as the Master failed to find his laser screwdriver, "I summoned you unarmed." he glanced to the other two, "The laser toy of his worked even though he was incorporeal."

"She needed someone to kill Daleks." the Master muttered, folding his arms defensively, "And I was led to believe that once she released me that was the end of it?"

"You should be so lucky." Draco muttered.

"So he helped you fix the rotation?" the Doctor asked.

"The what?" Jack asked.

"The planet stopped spinning while it was being towed." Draco said bluntly.

"You can thank me now." the Master said smugly.

"Hey, shouldn't you be in London?" that was Ron Weasley. Ron had apparated almost right on top of the Master, who glared at him for it and stepped to one side. Just because he wasn't physically there didn't mean he didn't value his personal space. "The Minister wants a report about why there was a representative of the Time Room involved in something that clearly related to Space. Or something like that. I wasn't paying attention. He mentioned something called Torchwood, too." Jack looked up more attentively at this idle remark.

"And you got the fun job of coming to find me. I'm flattered to hear they think I'm important enough to waste your precious time, Weasley." Draco snarked.

"Who're they?" Ron asked, pointing to Jack and the Doctor.

"They're some of the people who defeated the Daleks and towed the Earth back."

"Oh, they're the ones who caused the earthquakes, then?"

At this, the Master doubled over with laughter, then when he spared a glance at the Doctor's chagrin expression he actually fell to the ground in hysterics.

"Would you have preferred we all died of the cold, left out light years away from the sun?" Draco asked innocently. That failed to shut the Master up, but it made Ron look less smug.

"Did you only call us here to point out my mistake?" the Doctor asked coldly.

Draco shook his head and smiled, a genuine smile instead of his usual smirk, "No, to tell you that you told me this was going to happen. You know, so you could know to tell me when you meet me a decade or so ago."

Ron stared, "This is why you work in the Time Room, isn't it?"

"Partly." Draco said dismissively, "Also, let's see. You told me all about last year, too. That's how I knew to apply for the job of assistant to the Prime Minister before he even showed up on Earth-"

"You said that before." Ron noted, "How'd you have that job and still work in the Time Room, anyway?"

"Because I work in the Time Room." Draco held up a time turner for everyone to see, "One of the perks of the job."

"So how old are you, relatively?" Jack asked suddenly.

"About thirty-two."

"No you're not-" Ron started, knowing that he himself was twenty-eight.

"Counting a year in the nineteen forties- that's your fault, Doctor- a year that didn't happen, during which I doubled back about a month, or so. Not to mention holding down two full-time jobs for over a year before that, and being intelligent enough to account for sleep unlike your wife in our third year at school, Weasley. Yes, I'm about four years older than my birth-certificate would say."

"He talks almost as fast as you when he's on a rant." Jack noted, nudging the Doctor.

"You'll understand why a year or so after you first meet me." Draco said, looking at the Doctor to indicate whom he was speaking to. He was grinning, a bit evilly, at the memory of that day.

"Sounds like fun." the Doctor said, glancing at the Master, who had recovered from his laughing fit about half-way through Draco's rant, to stare at the human in question.

"I know what it is about you, now." the Master said, still staring, slightly stunned by some revelation, "Of course, if I say what I'm thinking it'll change things, won't it?"

Draco grinned, "Now you're allowed to go." and with that he picked up the ring to turn it back to dismiss the illusion. Now that the Master had actually seen the fact that Draco had- however temporarily- been him, he didn't need to stick around.

"Wait." the Master said, holding up his hand. He stood up and approached Draco, whispering in his ear, a question.

Draco nodded, and the Master whispered something else to him. As he said it, the Master smiled. If the Doctor didn't know him better than that he'd have thought it was a genuine, warm smile. Draco looked a little shocked, but seemed to easily accept the statement as fact, whatever it was. He stared at the echo of the Master for a few seconds, wide-eyed, then also smiled, and he nodded. "Good to have my suspicions confirmed." he said, a bit too brightly.

"Now you can let me go." the Master said calmly.

Draco turned over the ring three times, and the Master disappeared.

"I'll see you sometime in the past?" Draco said, grinning as he stood up, pocketing the ring. He shook the Doctor's hand and smiled at Jack. "And you, Torchwood. You need to call me." Jack grinned and winked cheekily at Draco.

"Is he gay?" Ron asked, suddenly, and rather rudely.

Everyone stared at Ron for a second, then Draco answered in as diplomatic a tone as is possible, "Captain Jack is what I think we should probably call omnisexual, if it's sentient and willing he's up for it."

"What, even a centaur?" Ron asked, clearly trying to think of the most unlikely possibility.

While Jack got a thoughtful look on his face, and Ron mimed vomiting, Draco grinned and noted a bit too cheerfully, "Imaging the pillow-talk with a centaur, 'the moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligns with Mars'."

The Doctor snorted with laughter. Ron continued his impersonation of a bulimic.

Jack, on the other hand, drawn out of thoughts best left unsaid, asked, "I recognise the song, but what-?"

"Centaurs are big into astronomy." Draco explained. "Time to go now." And he grabbed Ron's arm and disapparated them away.

"So we're gonna meet him again, huh?" Jack asked.

"It seems so."

Still, there was no one who would stay with the Doctor when it was over. They all had their own lives to go back to.

Maybe he should just go directly to nineteen-ninety-seven? No waiting, no moping. Yes, he'd do that. But if he was going to Hogwarts, there was someone else he needed to pick up first. With that in mind, he bade farewell to Captain Jack, and headed back to the TARDIS.

x x x

The End.


End file.
